Description
This hauntingly beautiful album presents three sacred works by Polish-American composer, Mark Nowakowski, whose musical career has been closely connected with the American musical scene. His music has been praised by Gramophone Magazine for its "intense emotional worlds" with "writing that is at once fierce, haunting, and mystical". At its centre is a new setting of The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, a luminous and deeply expressive work for string orchestra, percussion, clarinet and baritone, complemented by two further sacred compositions featuring solo violin and mixed choir. Nowakowski's music is marked by the authenticity of its spiritual impulse. His personal reflections on faith and the sacred find expression in a musical language that is mysterious, dramatic and emotionally charged. While the intensity of his writing may evoke the sound worlds of Bartok or Shostakovich, his distinctive voice transcends the traditions of the twentieth century, pointing instead towards a new contemporary classicism. The recording brings together the expressive forces of Orkiestra Camerata Stargard, the warm, lyrical voice of baritone Piotr Pieron and the compelling violin artistry of Karolina Hyla-Wybraniec. Together, they illuminate the profound spiritual and dramatic dimensions of Nowakowski's music in a performance of striking intensity and emotional immediacy.
